Analysis of To The Moonbeam

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



I.
Moonbeam, leave the shadowy vale,
To bathe this burning brow.
Moonbeam, why art thou so pale,
As thou walkest o'er the dewy dale,
Where humble wild-flowers grow?
Is it to mimic me?
But that can never be;
For thine orb is bright,
And the clouds are light,
That at intervals shadow the star-studded night.

II.
Now all is deathy still on earth;
Nature’s tired frame reposes;
And, ere the golden morning’s birth
Its radiant hues discloses,
Flies forth its balmy breath.
But mine is the midnight of Death,
And Nature's morn
To my bosom forlorn
Brings but a gloomier night, implants a deadlier thorn.

III.
Wretch! Suppress the glare of madness
Struggling in thine haggard eye,
For the keenest throb of sadness,
Pale Despair's most sickening sigh,
Is but to mimic me;
And this must ever be,
When the twilight of care,
And the night of despair,
Seem in my breast but joys to the pangs that rankle there.


Scheme ABXBBXCCDDD AEFEFGGHHH AFAFACCIII
Poetic Form
Metre 1 1101001 111101 111111 111100101 1101101 111101 111101 11111 00111 11100101101 1 1111111 101011 01010101 11001010 111101 1110111 0101 111001 11010010101001 1 10101110 10001101 10101110 1111001 111101 011101 10111 001101 1011111011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 882
Words 162
Sentences 12
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 11, 10, 10
Lines Amount 31
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 233
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

49 sec read
245

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

All Percy Bysshe Shelley poems | Percy Bysshe Shelley Books

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